


Popcorn and Other Irritations

by girl_next_door_writes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 09:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17020461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girl_next_door_writes/pseuds/girl_next_door_writes
Summary: Getting a job at your local cinema with your friends should have been a dream come true, unfortunately, your new co-worker has a tendency to rub you up the wrong way.





	Popcorn and Other Irritations

“Come work at the cinema they said, it’ll be fun they said.” You muttered to yourself as you swept popcorn out from under a seat through some indistinct sticky substance that had pooled on the floor. Letting out a sigh and pushing the hair back from your face you looked at your watch, still far too long before your break and with it being school holiday season every screen was crammed with screaming kids who dropped more than they ate. It was just your luck to pull ‘floor duty’ while your friends Nat and Steve got to run confection. To make things worse you’d been paired up with the arrogant asshat Stark. AGAIN. You’d swear there was someone somewhere messing with the shifts in order to inflict this torture on you. Filling yet another trash bag of thing you really didn’t want to think about, you looked up to see your ‘teammate’ sat with his feet up on the back of a seat a few rows away. “You gonna help or you planning on watching me clean the whole place by myself?” you glared at him.

“I’m just getting some tips. You’re so good at the whole cleaning thing I thought I’d see how it’s done.” Tony flashed you his most winning smile and was a little disappointed when it didn’t have the desired effect. Truth was he’d been tweaking the schedules for weeks now just to get a chance to get to know you a little better but with each passing shift you just seemed to loathe him more, if that was even possible. He’d figured early on that you really didn’t like him but that only spurred his determination to win you round. Jumping to his feet he climbed over the rows to get to you, reaching down he grabbed the trash bag. “How about I…”

“NO!” you yelled but too late as Tony pulled the middle of the unsecured bag and spilled two-thirds of the contents over the freshly cleaned floor and over your trousers. Tony at least had the decency to wince as you slowly counted to a million in your head. “I am going to go change. YOU are going to clean this screen before the next showing.” You huffed before turning on your heel and storming off. Tony watched you go with a frown, his heart now firmly lodged in his stomach. He just had no idea how to get you to like him, he’d never had this problem before.

Bruce and Steve were already sitting at the table in the staff room when Tony trudged in for his break. Sitting down heavily he slumped and rested his head on the table. “I take it things are not quite going to plan?” Bruce asked with a hint of amusement.

“She hates me. It’s official.” His voice was muffled by the table but his comment was enough to cause Steve to put down the book he was reading.

“What did you do now?” Steve asked with a sigh.

“Keep in mind I was trying to help…” Tony looked up, more than a little defensive.

“What did you do?” This time Steve’s tone was more pointed and his looked at Tony sternly.

“I may have dumped a bag of trash over her.” The boy muttered quietly, rushing his words in an attempt to make it not sound as bad.

“Yeah. I’d hate you after that.” Steve nodded and returned to his book.

“Listen, what you need to do is find some sort of common ground.” Bruce leaned forward and patted his friend on the shoulder, hoping that would bring him a little comfort.

“No. What he needs to do is just be honest with her.” From behind his book, it was obvious Steve was still frowning. This ridiculous behavior had been going on for weeks and he was getting a little frustrated with his friend.

“I like his idea better. Go on. Common ground.” Tony turned in his seat and focused on Bruce, his eyes eager as if this advice was going to be the thing that sealed the deal for him.

“Find out what she’s interested in and see if there’s anything you both like. Start up a conversation that’s not about you maybe.” He shrugged, a little uncomfortable with the way Tony was looking at him. 

“Find out what she’s interested in. I like it. I’m gonna go ask Nat.” Tony bounded up on his feet, knocking his chair over, and bounced out of the room before anyone could say anything to stop him. There was a moments silence and then Bruce got up and picked up the fallen chair.

“He’s gonna screw this up isn’t he.” He sighed, shaking his head sadly.

“Yep.”

As Tony headed towards the confection stand he spotted you outside one of the screens deep in conversation with Sam. He froze mid-step, surely you and Wilson weren’t… No, no he’d have heard about it if… Steve would have said that…He frowned and snuck a little closer. “I’m telling you, Sam, it’s driving me crazy. He is lazy and selfish and arrogant and…”

“Sounds to me like you might have a bit of a crush.” Sam teased earning him a punch to the arm. 

“I’m serious Sam. Swap with me, let me go work box and you can teach him the finer points of cleanliness.” You practically begged, and Tony felt a pain in his chest as he vision suddenly went a little misty. He didn’t stay to hear Sam’s reply, instead, he slunk off to the bathroom until the end of his break. 

“Come on, he can’t be that bad,” Sam smirked.

“The boy dumped actual trash on me, Wilson.” You deadpanned and he broke into a fit of laughter. 

“Fine, fine. I will swap but you owe me.” He pointed at you and headed off to grab extra trash bags leaving you to skip over to the Box Office where Bruce was just returning from his lunch. 

“Hey, Sam swapped so you got me this afternoon.” You smiled brightly and he returned your smile a little shyly before turning to deal with the new customers who had just arrived. 

The afternoon was jam packed and even in the quieter times, you found it fun, sitting and chatting with Bruce. “I don’t think we’ve ever really talked before.” You chuckled as he finished a story about a science experiment he tried that ended up exploding all over Tony’s garage. 

“Yeah… I…erm…I don’t really talk to people. That’s why I work box, trying to push myself a little. It was Tony’s idea actually. He’s… he’s a good guy. Takes a little getting used to but he’s a good guy.” Bruce said earnestly.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” You rolled your eyes and replaced your ticket roll.

“Really, he really really is. He went through a bit of a bad break up and, well, his dad isn’t that great with him and… don’t be fooled by the front he puts up.” Bruce smiled sadly as he thought about all his friend had been through recently. The crowds picked up again and you didn’t get chance to ask what he meant by that. 

At the end of your shift, you cashed up your til and headed to the elevator to hand over to the main office. “Let me.” A familiar voice offered, and you bit back the sassy comment that was on the tip of your tongue remembering what Bruce had said earlier. Tony pressed the button and the doors opened. He stood to one side and let you get in before following you into the small space. You reached over and pressed the button for the third floor and stepped back. The doors closed but it didn’t feel as if the elevator was moving so Tony leaned forward and jabbed at the button a couple of times before getting increasingly frustrated and hitting the entire panel. All this did was cause the lights to flicker and one of the buttons to stick. 

“Great. This is just fucking fantastic.” The sarcasm in your tone was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.

“This isn’t my fault!” Tony said defensively.

“Well, it sure ain’t mine. I wasn’t the one punching the damn thing.” The glare you shot his way would have made anybody else back off but he simply folded his arms over his chest.

“You pressed the button the first time…” he began to justify but you were having none of it.

“Do not try and twist this around to be my fault when it’s clearly yours.” Your face twisted with anger. 

“I wouldn’t even have been in here if you hadn’t swapped to box.” He huffed, turning away slightly.

“I wouldn’t have swapped to box if you hadn’t dumped trash over me.” Your voice raised a little more, sounding indignant that he had the audacity to blame this situation on you.

“I wouldn’t have dumped trash over you if you didn’t goad me into helping.” He sassed, earning him another dark look.

“I wouldn’t have had to if you actually did your job instead of getting on my last nerve!” you spat and Tony looked like you had just punched him in the face. You immediately wished you could take your words back, placing a hand over your mouth.

“I… okay.” Tony turned away and went to sit in the corner of the elevator, trying his best to hide the slight wobble of his bottom lip. 

“Tony…”

“No, no, really it’s… it’s okay.” He shrugged, giving a weak smile in your direction but not meeting your eye. Placing your cash tray down you took the short steps over to him and sat next to him, leaning against the wall. “I know you hate me.” He said quietly, and your brow furrowed.

“I don’t hate you, Tony. You frustrate me but that’s not hate.” All anger and frustration was drained from your voice now leaving it soft and filled with compassion and a little guilt.

“I’ll stop swapping shifts round.” His voice was so quiet you barely heard his admission.

“Wait… what? You…you were swapping shifts to put us together? Why in the name of god would you do that?” Looking at him in confusion he couldn’t help the corners of his mouth twitching up, he thought you look so adorable.

“I just wanted to get to know the beautiful new girl. I know I don’t always give a great first impression, so I figured if we worked together for a while then maybe you’d see past that and…” He shrugged, unsure quite what his end game was, he only knew he liked being near you.

“Maybe… How about we pull a shift on box together? That way nothing can get spilled on me, there’s no disgusting damp patches anywhere, we don’t go home smelling of popcorn and there’s the chance to have a proper conversation?” you suggest, realising that you had probably been a little too harsh on the poor guy, and he did just call you beautiful. “So, this a trick you pull with all the new girls?” you teased, bumping shoulders with him.

“You’re the first girl worth owing Wilson and Barnes for. Turns out getting those two to swap shifts with me was quite costly.” He smiled as you laughed, that sound made his heart race, especially as he was the one responsible. Looking down he muttered to himself. “Worth it though.”

“Right, well, how do we get out of this elevator?” You turned to him with a smile he couldn’t help but mirror.

“You think they sorted it yet?” Sam looked at Steve with a smirk as he tossed a screwdriver from one hand to the other.

“I really hope so because I don’t think I can take any more of Tony’s stupid schemes.” Steve sighed, his ear pressed against the door of the elevator in a vain attempt to see if he could hear anything.

“Wait, wasn’t this one of Starks stupid schemes?” Barnes asked, a little confused, as he leaned against the wall next to the elevator control panels.

“This one was all Barton.” Wilson grinned before pressing the button that brought the machine to life again. “Now let’s run before we get caught!”


End file.
